IS YOUR WEBSITEHELPING OR HURTINGYOUR PERFORMING ARTS BUSINESS?

A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN

In the theater business, it’s clear when an audience is happy, you can hear their applause. But it’s the people who never make it into the theater that you should worry about. Their silence can be deafening.

Your website could be creating a negative user experience, damaging your brand and costing you business every day without you even knowing it. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain to look at the facts.

If people can’t find your performing arts business online, they’re not likely to become patrons. Let’s look at the three pillars of online visibility: SEO, Content and Social Media.

Can Audiences Find Your Business on the Web?

Search Engine Optimization is the digital magic that helps search engines (like Google) connect people with the right information they’re seeking. You need to generate organic search, and if your SEO isn’t ready for showtime, you’re missing out on it.

If you’re just using your website to sell tickets and advertise showtimes, you’ll never generate the organic search your theater deserves. If you want to reach enough people to fill those seats, you need content. Which means you need a blog.

Arguably the most effective (and cheapest) way of communicating with the public these days, your social media presence is crucial.

33%

70%of online experiences begin with a search engine

The first organic search result generates 33% of clicks

Websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages than their counterparts who lack them

31% of all referral traffic on the Internet is generated through social media

of consumers are likely to follow a brand after purchasing from them

70% of links users click on are from organic search

of users never scroll past the first page of search results

57% of marketers acquired customers from blogging

434%

31%

81% of businesses consider their blog to be an important asset

Social media, combined with search, increases click-through rate by 94%

+

64%

93%

75%

Roughly 50 percent of mobile users refuse to use a website that isn’t mobile friendly. What’s worse is they also said they get the impression that a company doesn’t want their business if its website is non-responsive. Unless you can afford to lose half of your online customers, you need a mobile friendly website.

Are people having a poor mobile experience on your website?

88% of consumers say they’ve had a negative experience making purchases on their mobile devices.

Just because customers aren’t telling you there’s a problem doesn’t mean there isn’t one. What you don’t know can hurt you.

say that websites took too long to load on their phone or tablet

51% say that websites often crash or freeze on their mobile device

73%

will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load

of online shoppers will tell their friends about a bad online experience

40% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a website’s performance are less likely to purchase from the same site again

44%

found the formatting of a website difficult to read on their phone

48%

51%

X79%

30% will never visit that website again

CHECKOUT ABANDONMENT

Imagine if 7 out of 10 people who walked up to your box office with cash in hand suddenly walked away as you were getting ready to hand them their ticket. Here’s the bad news: That’s exactly what they’re doing online. On average, 69% of all online purchases are abandoned at the shopping cart. Here’s the good news: All of the reasons people gave for abandoning purchases during checkout can be addressed by improving your web presence. Let’s look at why consumers are walking away at the last minute.

Why People Abandon Purchases During Checkout

Extra costs too high (shipping, taxes, fees) 61%

The site required people to create an account 35%

The checkout process was too complicated 27%

Customers couldn’t calculate total costs up-front 24%

The site crashed 22%

Customers didn’t trust website with credit card 18%

Delivery was too slow 16%

Unless you’re an expert on web design and all of its components (including user experience, visual presentation, SEO and mobile responsiveness), it can be hard to tell if your website is helping or hurting your business. Vendini offers a comprehensive—and free—evaluation of your performing arts website. Drop us a line at hello@vendini.com and write “Website Evaluation” in the subject line. We’ll have a rep contact you within 24 hours to set up a thorough evaluation.

Sources

Bianchin, Daniel. “10 Stats to Justify SEO”. Search Engine Journal (blog). https://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-stats-to-justify-seo/

Siu, Eric. “24 Eye-Popping SEO Statistics”. Search Engine Journal (blog). https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/

Lee, Jessica. “No. 1 Position in Google Gets 33% of Search Traffic”. Search Engine Watch. https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2276184/no-1-position-in-google-gets-33-of-search-traffic-study/

“120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs”. HubSpot (SlideShare). https://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/marketing-charts-graphsdataapril2010slideshare

DeMers, Jayson. “Social Media Now Drives 31% Of All Referral Traffic”. Forbes (blog). http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/02/03/social-media-now-drives-31-of-all-referral-traffic/

Sterling, Greg. “Search + Social Media Increases CTR By 94 Percent: Report”. Search Engine Land (blog). http://searchengineland.com/search-social-media-increases-ctr-by-94-percent-report-66231

“How Many Sales Are You Loosing Because Your Small Business Website Isn’t Properly Designed?”. Emerge Inc. (newsletter). https://www.emergeinc.com/how-many-sales-are-you-losing-because-your-small-business-website-isnt-properly-designed/

Forten, Nicole M. “Poor Mobile Shopping Experience”. Demac Media (infographic). https://www.demacmedia.com/infographic/infographic-wednesday-poor-mobile-shopping-experience/

“How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line”. Kissmetrics (blog). https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/

Bustos, Linda. “The Danger of a Poor Mobile Shopping Experience”. Get Elastic (infographic). http://www.getelastic.com/the-danger-of-a-poor-mobile-shopping-experience-infographic/

SEO

CONTENT

SOCIAL MEDIA

REASONS FOR POOR MOBILE EXPERIENCE

OUTCOMES OF POOR MOBILE EXPERIENCE